Palladium Hotel Group Focuses on the People with its Corporate Social Responsibility Policy

Palladium Hotel Group takes a step forward in the development of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy, with the appointment of Gloria Juste as Corporate Sr. Director of Social Responsibility, who will foster the promotion, in addition to measures already underway, of other new large-scale projects, focusing on the people who make up the group and the local companies in which the company carries out its activity.

The hotel group has a CSR committee, supported by the company’s President and Management Committee, which oversees all areas and teams. Through this appointment, Palladium Hotel Group will consolidate its measures focused on protecting the environment and the principles of circular economy, while highlighting a special focus on people. The priority of the department led by Gloria Juste will be the implementation of comprehensive support measures for the employees of the hotel group, nearly 13,000 people who are the main value of Palladium Hotel Group, their family environment and the local communities in which the group operates throughout six countries, located in Europe and America.

In the words of Jesús Sobrino, CEO of Palladium Hotel Group, “We are proud to continue building solid foundations for the sustainable growth of our company, which has been working for some time on the implementation of different measures related to the protection and care of the environment. In accordance with one of our premises as a group of always putting people at the center, we will implement projects specifically focused on increasing the real positive impact on our collaborators, their family environment and the local communities of the destinations in which we operate. Our objective is to contribute our grain of sand to improve the future prospects of those who are closest to us.”

Gloria Juste has a Law Degree from the University of Pontificia de Comillas. After graduating, she completed a master’s degree in Fiscal and Tax Law at the Centro de Estudios Garrigues. Through this academic training, she was able to reconcile with different volunteer actions in Spain and in other countries, which led her to launch the Mano Amiga Foundation to accompany minors and vulnerable families. Later on, she decided to undertake different social initiatives such as: Mashumano, Wolters Kluwer Formación, SAVIA, BYG, among others. In 2016, Juste assumed the Project Management of the Endesa Foundation, where she remained until now. During this stage, she led the creation of new areas of the Foundation such as Education, Employment, Environment, Social-Assistance and Corporate Volunteering.

Gloria Juste, Corporate Sr. Director of Social Responsibility, stated “I assume this role with great enthusiasm and excitement to join this business group which is full of growth and whose commitment to the environment and society has increased over the years. The group’s vision focuses on developing initiatives with local communities working hand-in-hand, supporting and accompanying the people who make them. I appreciate the trust placed in me to lead this project. We will work to design and manage initiatives that support the people who are part of the Palladium Hotel Group and the communities where we operate. We seek to create the necessary impact and transformation in our environment, always under our sustainability criteria.”

Palladium Hotel Group has developed through the last 50 years of experience various Corporate Social Responsibility actions in different areas, always adhering to three main focuses such as the circular economy, the environment and the social ambit. Now, the hotel company goes a step further in its commitment, especially relevant to people; focusing on providing support, offering training and education opportunities, which allow access to the labor market under the premise that the best social assistance is employment.

Social Commitment
In the social realm, the company focuses its efforts on two fundamental aspects: external social responsibility, towards the communities where it operates, and internal social responsibility, the commitment to its own employees. Palladium Hotel Group is committed to continuing to deploy concrete actions that have a real impact on the people closest to it.

Among the group’s commitments are its equality plan, the signing of the UNWTO Global Code of Ethics for tourism, or the Top Employer certification, which the group has held for two years in Spain, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Jamaica. Likewise, the group continuously collaborates with the Integra Foundation, whose objective is to employ people at risk of social exclusion; it promotes the Balearic Islands, Pequeño Deseo, and, of course, the Abel Matutes Foundation, which carries out social, sports and cultural initiatives in Ibiza and Formentera. For its nearly 13,000 employees, the hotel group provides training and development actions, health promotion, and multiple social benefits.

Circular Economy
Regarding the circular economy, Palladium Hotel Group applies various measures based on three essential pillars: the recovery, recycling and reuse of waste. Under these, it has implemented specific actions such as an exhaustive waste control both across its hotels in Europe and America, through which it has managed to achieve a general reduction of this type of material; the control and reduction of the carbon and water footprint, or the management of efficient rehabilitations and reforms. These latter initiatives have earned the group two recent recognitions: Palladium Hotel Menorca and TRS Ibiza Hotel have been recognized in 2021 and 2022 respectively, as the best sustainability and hotel rehabilitation projects in Spain by the ReThink Hotel association.

Environment
In line with Palladium Hotel Group’s commitment to the environment, the group articulates various measures around three areas: sustainability, climate change and awareness.

In this sense, measures such as the policy to reduce single-use plastics, the reduction in the use of paper in operational procedures and, most notably, the responsible use of energy, in which the group has placed a lot of weight on over the last few years, implementing measures aimed at reducing consumption and prioritizing the use of energy from renewable sources, either through guarantees of origin or through self-consumption with the installation of photovoltaic panels in destinations such as Ibiza, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic . These measures have allowed 100% of the group’s energy consumption in Spain to come from renewable sources. The medium-term objective is to reach 50% of global consumption in the six countries in which Palladium Hotel Group operates.

For these initiatives, Palladium Hotel Group has received recognition such as the Responsible and Sustainable Tourism Award from the Intermundial Foundation in 2021, the Platinum, Gold and Silver seals awarded by EarthCheck to its hotels in the Riviera Maya, Jamaica, Brazil, Punta Cana, Riviera Nayarit and Tenerife, respectively. Likewise, the Blue flags, which fly in the Riviera Maya and Punta Cana; and the Distinctive S, awarded by the Mexican Ministry of Tourism to Grand Palladium Hotels & Resorts in Riviera Maya and Riviera Nayarit; as well as the Cleaner Production Certification of the Dominican Republic for the Grand Palladium Hotels & Resorts resort in Punta Cana.

Biodiversity
Finally, in the biodiversity area, Palladium Hotel Group carries out a series of very relevant actions such as the creation of protected spaces for the rehabilitation, care and recovery of protected species such as sea turtles or flamingos; mangrove monitoring; the impact study on corals and the beach cleaning programs, in which employees of the different hotels within the group are enthusiastically and voluntarily involved.